Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

December 20, 2015March 13, 2016

‘Phoenix’, a site specific installation for the Abacus’ closing

‘Phoenix’ 2015, Site Specific Installation within the now disused Abacus Vault.

I was asked to move my piece within the Abacus, in order to make room for a mural that was going up for the Closing event. The Abacus, is unfortunately shutting down, due to the powers that be evicting them from their space. In remembrance of the all the beautiful and weird things that have happened within The space, especially the Vault, I wanted to revisit this unique aspect of the Abacus. The first exhibition within the space involved my work going in the Vault; and in the end, I was able to make work for the space once more, despite it being almost completely closed off. Taking ‘Cradle’, and re-purposing it into a symbol for the Abacus’ legacy, I chose to revisit the motif of the bird for it’s relation to transcendence, and the tragedy of a bird that is unable to fly; as well as the notion of the phoenix and rebirth. The Abacus is dead but it will live on within the minds and hearts of those who have interacted with it, and the resonations that have spread from within the space. As the Piece was concerned with harnessing the latent power within a ‘dead’ object, and resurrecting it through the process of transmuting the materials into an artwork; it seemed the perfect object to utilise as a symbol of the Abacus’ undying spirit, and continuation of it’s legacy.